Julian, Duke of Haverford, is barely keeping his handsome head above water amid a sea of inherited debts. His sister, Lady Glenys, decides to throw a house party Julian can ill afford in hopes of finding an heiress for him to marry. Julian tries to turn this disaster into opportunity by inviting every well-heeled bachelor in the realm, because Lady Glenys is also in want of a spouse.
Elizabeth Windham is among the guests at the Haverford house party, though her goal is to elude matchmaking from any quarter. Julian and Elizabeth are attracted, however, despite meddling siblings, financial woes, and gossips lurking behind every potted palm. Just as Julian and Elizabeth realize that they can snatch true love from the jaws of duty, Julian’s difficulties become ruinous. Which will it be? True love or true disaster?
Colin MacHugh is trying to come up to scratch as the brother and heir of a newly minted duke, but Polite Society isn’t keen on a former army captain acquiring even a courtesy title. At the suggestion of an aristocratic friend, Colin takes an interest in a charitable home for urchins. Miss Anwen Windham is devoted to the same institution, and as Colin and Anwen work together to save the failing orphanage, their interest in each other becomes passionate.
When the orphanage’s troubles take a criminal turn, everybody is suspect, from Colin, to the children, to Anwen. If Colin blows retreat and heads home to Scotland, the orphanage will surely fail. If he stays to fight the accusations coming at him from all sides, he could lose a future with Anwen–and his life….
Ashton Fenwick was raised to be the bastard older brother—the charming, happy bastard older brother—but now an earldom has been foisted upon him. His family urgently needs him to find the right countess, and the best place to look for prospective countesses is London during the social Season. With charm at the ready, Ashton is prepared to go wife-hunting, though it’s the landlady at his lodging house who catches his eye—and his heart.
Matilda Bryce bakes a delicious apple tart and does not suffer fools. Ashton falls hard for a woman who doesn’t put on airs, even as she looks after street urchins and does what she can to acquaint him with the challenge before him. As Ashton gets to know Matilda better, he realizes somebody is out to destroy her happiness. He’s found the lady for him, but before he can make an honest countess of her, he must risk all to free Matilda from her past.
Sir John Dewey Fanning (Jack to his familiars) is magistrate of a corner of Oxfordshire plagued by one incident of petty mischief after another. To add to his aggravation, his mama and younger brother are joining his household for the winter, and Jack’s domestic staff can’t seem to sort itself out.
He turns to Miss Madeline Hennessey to act as his mother’s temporary companion, despite the fact that Jack has long harbored feelings for the ever-competent and self-reliant Miss Hennessey. Madeline reluctantly accepts the position, and proximity leads to investigations of an amorous nature. Can Jack stop the crime spree and steal Madeline’s heart, too?
Will Dorning, as the Earl of Casriel’s heir, and older brother to four rambunctious brothers, sees his life as one of duty and drudgery. He guards the earl’s back, and keeps a watchful eye on his siblings, though his only real companions are the dogs he’s treasured since boyhood.
Lady Susannah Haddonfield has no patience with loud, smelly beasts of any species, but must learn to appear to like dogs so as not to offend her sister’s only marital prospect. Susannah turns to Will, an acquaintance from the most awkward years of her adolescence, to teach her how to get along with canines. Will instead teaches her how to get along with him, and with her siblings, until Susannah must choose between her favorite lone wolf and placid propriety.
Daniel Banks is a man of the cloth whose vocation is the last comfort he has left. In an attempt to start his life over, Daniel accepts the post of vicar in Haddondale, a position supported by the Earl of Bellefonte. There Daniel meets Lady Kirsten Haddonfield, to whom life has also dealt multiple unkind blows. Daniel’s interest is piqued by Kirsten’s unsentimental attitude toward her misfortunes, and by the kind-heartedness the lady keeps well hidden. Kirsten is much taken with Mr. Banks and his genuine compassion for others, despite his own troubles. When Providence intervenes, and Daniel and Kirsten can become engaged, their happiness seems complete…. though every garden has at least one nasty, sly, determined serpent.
Tremaine St. Michael is firmly in trade and seeks only to negotiate the sale of some fancy sheep with the Earl of Bellefonte. The earl’s sister, Lady Nita, is pragmatic, hard-working, and selfless, though Tremaine senses she’s also tired of her charitable obligations and envious of her siblings’ marital bliss.
Tremaine, having been raised among shepherds, can spot another lonely soul, no matter how easily she fools her own family. Neither Tremaine nor Nita is looking for love, but love comes looking for them.
Theresa Jennings strayed from propriety as a younger woman, though now she’ll do anything to secure her child’s future among decent society. She’ll even make peace with the titled brother who turned his back on her years ago.
Matthew Belmont, local magistrate and neighbor to Theresa’s brother, is a widower who’s been lonely too long. He sees in Theresa a woman paying a high a price for mistakes long past, and a lady given far too little respect for turning her life around. Theresa is enthralled by Matthew’s combination of honorable intentions and honest passion, but then trouble comes calling, and it’s clear somebody intends to ruin Theresa and Matthew’s chance at a happily ever after.
Thomas Jennings, Baron Sutcliffe, relinquishes his position as man of business for David, Lord Fairly, to take up life as a country squire. Thomas’s newly purchased estate, Linden, is managed by Miss Loris Tanner, daughter of the former steward who abandoned his post—and his only child—under a cloud of scandal. Thomas is willing to give Loris a chance to prove her competence in a profession uniformly undertaken by men, but the situation becomes complicated. Will Loris give Thomas a chance to become something more dear and lasting to her than simply her broad-minded employer, or will the scandal in her past come back to ruin her future, too?
Noah Winters, Duke of Anselm, exercises the pragmatism for which he’s infamous when his preferred choice of bride cries off, and her companion, Lady Thea Collins, becomes his next choice for his duchess. Lady Thea is mature, sensible and even rather attractive—what could possibly go wrong?
As a lady fallen on hard times, Thea doesn’t expect tender sentiments from His Grace, but she does wish Noah had courted her trust, lest her past turn their hastily arranged marriage into a life of shared regrets. Is His Grace courting a convenient wife, or a ducal disaster?
